Left Flank

Implausibly, from a country like the Philippines, comes not one, but two suggestions about how to improve Myanmar's plight.

Firstly, RP President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo believes «woman power» will do the trick, and puts in a good word for perennially detained Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

But, yesterday Fr. Robert Reyes extolled the «activism» of the Philippines' catholic hierarchy, and recommended that Myanmar's «quiet» Buddhist monks » '...work against oppression and violence' «

Quoting a story from the Ucan Catholic news service, Reyes said a Burmese Catholic nun tried to organize her fellow religious but no one responded because they were «afraid to tell the truth.»

According to the report, the nun said in a text message to her friends in Manila that she hoped Church leaders in the Philippines and other countries would lead the universal Church «in prayer and in action, since the Church in Myanmar is so afraid.» «Our Catholic Church is so quiet. Our people do nothing but pray individually, privately,» the nun reportedly said.

The Catholic bishops' conference in Burma issued a statement on Sept. 26 saying that it had been praying for peace and urging the people to offer prayers and sacrifice for the peaceful resolution of the situation in the country.

The Burmese bishops' conference said that while its priests and religious were not involved in party politics and in the recent protests, Catholics were «free to act as they deem fit.»

Reyes said Filipinos were molded by an «active Christian ethic against corruption and oppression.»

?People, I think, in the Philippines, being Christian, have that Christian ethic against corruption and oppression. That is an active ethic. There is a tendency in Buddhism to look at salvation from within,» he said.

Reyes said monastic communities in general exude a «very passive ethic» by their emphasis on «withdrawal from the world.»

?(But) it's not enough to say «Let us pray.» You (just) don't pray against injustice. You work against injustice. You work against oppression and violence,» he said. But now that the Burmese Buddhist monks and nuns have found their voice and actually initiated the pro-democracy protests, Reyes said the world should not forget them.

If only Myanmar could be like the Philippines!